Our own Snoopy the Goon hosts this week’s Haveil Havalim. Go and read, I suspect more than one post will be about Tisha b’Av, one of the most mournful days in Jewish history.

For the uninitiated, among many other things, both Temples were destroyed on the ninth of Av.

This is a first, for me at least. I was already inured to Allah fishes and even Allah tomato caused only a moderate reaction in my stomach, having nothing to do with this fashionable salmonella strain that seems to inhabit some US vegetables.

What looks like the Arabic word for God and the name of the prophet Muhammad were discovered in pieces of beef by a diner in Birnin Kebbi.

The name of the file that carries the photograph of the holy meat in the linked BBC article includes a string “mysterymeat”. I think that some interested Islamic parties should sort it out with BBC. I detect a whiff of disrespect here.

But all in all, the whole issue is very encouraging, at least for me. Since the beef was blessed by Allah, I guess it is safe to say now that it will put paid to the vegetarians trying to enforce their creed on the rest of the world.

“When the writings were discovered there were some Islamic scholars who come and eat here and they all commented that it was a sign to show that Islam is the only true religion for mankind,” he said.

Yes, I see the light now! As long as my burger and my T-bone and my fried chicken are blessed, I am totally with it!

Lead me, oh chef chief of all kabobs!

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

Late last week, the NY Sun reported that the recent Saudi sponsored conference on religion ended on a “sour note.” A statement read by the sponsoring organization at the end of the conference, wasn’t the same one that participants had agreed upon.

The final statement, which was read by an official with the Muslim World League, Abdul Rahman Al-Zaid, rankled several of the conference participants because it differed from an earlier agreed upon draft. Under pressure from a conference participant, William Vendley of Religions for Peace, a second version was subsequently drafted which attributed the communiqué to the “conveners” of the conference and not the participants, as the earlier version had.

One complaint, which two participants voiced on condition of anonymity, is that the communiqué called for the Muslim World League to select some of the delegates for the suggested upon United Nations conference on interfaith dialogue.

The major complaint of many participants was that the document appears to have been revised at some stage without the consent of members of a drafting committee. And the vast majority of participants never had a chance to review any version of the statement before Mr. Al-Zaid of the Muslim World League read it aloud.

This might be a consequence of how Muslims - or at least Saudi Muslims - view other religions. Anne Applebaum observes:

Among other things, the Saudis sponsored an interfaith dialogue this week, one that all participants hailed as a great breakthrough — despite the fact that the meetings took place in Spain, apparently because it would be too embarrassing for Saudi Arabia to host Christian and Jewish religious leaders on its own soil.

The point of Applebaum’s column though wasn’t the conference but Saudi produced textbooks that teach students to despise adherents of other religions.

Here, for example, is a multiple-choice question from a recent edition of a Saudi fourth-grade textbook, “Monotheism and Jurisprudence,” in a section that attempts to teach children to distinguish between “true” and “false” belief in God:

Q. “Is belief true in the following instances:

(a) A man prays but hates those who are virtuous.

(b) A man professes that there is no deity other than God but loves the unbelievers.

(c) A man worships God alone, loves the believers, and hates the unbelievers.”

The correct answer, of course, is (c): According to the Wahhabi imams who wrote this textbook, it isn’t enough to simply worship God or just to love other believers; it is important to hate unbelievers, too. By the same token, (b) is wrong as well: Even a man who worships God cannot be said to have “true belief” if he also loves unbelievers.

This test and other outrages Applebaum points out, come from the new edition of the Saudi textbooks that were supposed to reflect a

“comprehensive revision . . . to weed out disparaging remarks toward religious groups.”

These textbooks are an issue because they are used in Saudi sponsored schools all over the world.

Shrinkwrapped notes how Islam-Online characterized the conference:

Spain Meet For Criminalizing Blasphemy

Shrinkwrapped continues:

There is only one religion whose adherents continue to criminalize blasphemy today. It is also a religion whose adherents consistently define terrorism to exclude attacks on non-Muslims.

A dialogue designed to avoid a clash of civilizations must be a two way dialogue; the alternative is referred to as surrender.

…which goes a long way towards explaining why the Saudis didn’t consult the participants before changing the final statement.

Marc Gopin, who apparently was at the conference, saw it as a positive step.

Throughout the three days, and even after the event has concluded, some of us are still deeply engaged with the Muslims present, exchanging information and opening up worlds of information to each other, from information on the inner workings of American Jewish politics to the inner realities of the Madrassas of Pakistan. We have been in in-depth conversation with Saudi journalists, Saudi sheikhs, and Pakistani activists. I was also on Saudi Television last night and was amazed by the respect that I was shown. This is the essence of how and when religion can become a bridge of piece in a complicated world.

It would seem, though, that the respect accorded to Rabbi Gopin and other attendees was personal. The failure of the organizers to consult the participants and the failure of Saudi officials to change the textbooks, show a general level of disdain for adherents of other religions.

Daled Amos provides a list of actions and words that demonstrate the superficiality of the tolerance purportedly demonstrated by the conference including:

Islam’s idea of ‘open dialogue’ appears to be building as big a mosque as possible in Rome while denying any open display of any other religion in all of Saudi Arabia.

Which raises the question: just what does Saudi Arabia want out of these discussions, anyway?

And the answer is that it wants participants like Rabbi Gopin who don’t look past the veneer of tolerance at the conference and will vouch for a changed (or at least changing) Saudi Arabia. Such ambassador’s of goodwill would serve as a counterpoint to the still intolerant textbooks.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The Arab League is holding an “extraordinary” meeting about Israeli expansion of Jerusalem suburbs.

CAIRO, June 5 (Xinhua) — The Arab League (AL) Council has decided to hold an extraordinary meeting on June 15 to discuss the Israeli settlement activities in the disputed territory, an AL spokesman said on Thursday.

Abdel Aleem al-Abiyad, spokesman for AL chief Amr Moussa, made the announcement in a brief press release on Thursday, saying the meeting will be held at the level of permanent delegates.

On Sunday, Israeli Housing Ministry published a bid for the construction of more than 800 apartment units in east Jerusalem, the latest decision to build more houses in the disputed territory since the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks at the U.S.-sponsored Annapolis conference last November.

Hey, Arab League: Bite me.

“To tell you the truth I don’t quite understand this. Must Israel ask permission from some other authority in the world? It has been our capital for 3,000 years. We have been there since the time your forefathers used to drink wine, bury their daughters alive, and pray to multiple gods.”

Keidar was referring to a period Arabs call Jahiliyyah (ignorance of divine guidance), which prevailed in the Arab world before the time of the Islam. “So then,” he continued, “why must we speak about this? It has been our city for 3,000 years and will be for eternity.”

(Can’t wait to see a full transcript of that interview.)

Well, no, actually, the police arrested the people in question and nothing else happened. These are Jews, not Muslims, after all.

Shocked and repulsion seem the best words to describe the collective feelings of Haifa’s police reconnaissance unit upon entering an apartment in their city on Saturday night only to find pages torn from a prayer book being used as toilet paper.

Six suspects between the ages of 18-20 were brought before the Haifa Magistrate’s Court on Sunday morning as police requested their arrest be extended for questioning.

Over the past few months a number of graffiti-sprayed swastikas and hate slogans had appeared on the walls of buildings around Allenby St. and in the Kiryat Eliezer, Bat Galim and Hadar neighborhoods of the city. Police are presently investigating a possible connection to the suspects currently in their custody.

They’re recent Russian immigrants. There’s a controversy over Russian immigrants that Snoopy could probably elaborate on far better than I, but a significant number of Russians who immigrated to Israel have no background in Judaism, and picked up the disgusting habits of their fellow Russians—the ones responsible for the Settlement of the Pale and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Israel has a neo-Nazi problem, and it’s mostly Russian youths. Like the ones arrested for defacing prayer books and terrorizing their neighbors.

Fortunately, Israel has begun to recognize that is has this problem, and is working to resolve it.

An Israeli researcher told Al-Jazeera (and by proxy, Muslims) exactly what Jewish ties to Jerusalem are compared to the Arabs.

Rayyan opened with the question, “Mr. Mordechai, is this decision meant to constitute another nail in the coffin of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations?”

The journalist appeared taken aback when Keidar answered, “To tell you the truth I don’t quite understand this. Must Israel ask permission from some other authority in the world? It has been our capital for 3,000 years. We have been there since the time your forefathers used to drink wine, bury their daughters alive, and pray to multiple gods.”

Keidar was referring to a period Arabs call Jahiliyyah (ignorance of divine guidance), which prevailed in the Arab world before the time of the Islam. “So then,” he continued, “why must we speak about this? It has been our city for 3,000 years and will be for eternity.”

Hehehehehehe. That’s a good one. But wait. There’s more.

The stunned Rayyan refused to give up. “Excuse me Mr. Mordechai! If you would like to speak about history let’s talk about the Kuran as well. You cannot deny the existence of Jerusalem in the Kuran! I ask you to refrain from making statements that offend Arabs and Muslims. Let’s please stay with our topic,” he said.

“Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Kuran,” Keidar said.

Rayyan stated the verse that, according to Muslim belief, refers to Jerusalem, but Keidar continued to object. “Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Kuran even once.”

And it isn’t. I believe the phrase is “the furthest mosque.”

Does anyone else think that organizing a conference on interfaith dialogue—from the Saudia Arabian city of Mecca, a place in which only Muslims are allowed to set foot—is a signal that perhaps the Saudis don’t really mean what they say?

Islam must do away with the dangers of extremism and present the religion’s positive message, Saudi King Abdullah said Wednesday as he opened a conference of Muslim figures aimed at launching a dialogue with Christians and Jews.

The three-day gathering in the holy city of Mecca seeks a unified Muslim voice ahead of the interfaith dialogue. In particular, Saudi Arabia hopes to promote reconciliation between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

By the way, there’s something wrong with that modifier in the second paragraph. Let me fix it.

The three-day gathering in the holy only to Muslims city of Mecca seeks a unified Muslim voice ahead of the interfaith dialogue. In particular, Saudi Arabia hopes to promote reconciliation between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Boy, are they trying to present a united front or what?

“You have gathered today to tell the whole world that … we are a voice of justice and values and humanity, that we are a voice of coexistence and a just and rational dialogue,” Abdullah told the 500 Muslim delegates from 50 Muslim nations in his opening speech.

Yes, justice. It’s the hammer of justice:

Saudi Arabia is one of a number of countries where courts continue to impose corporal punishment, including amputations of hands and feet for robbery, and lashings for lesser crimes such as “sexual deviance” and drunkenness. The number of lashes is not clearly prescribed by law and is varied according to the discretion of judges, and ranges from dozens of lashes to several thousand, usually applied over a period of weeks or months. In 2002, the United Nations Committee against Torture criticized Saudi Arabia over the amputations and floggings it carries out under its interpretation of Sharia. The Saudi delegation responded defending “legal traditions” held since the inception of Islam 1400 years ago and rejected interference in its legal system.

It’s the bell of freedom:

Saudi women face severe discrimination in many aspects of their lives, including education, employment, and the justice system and are clearly regarded as inferior to men. Although they make up 70% of those enrolled in universities, women make up just 5% of the workforce in Saudi Arabia,[6] the lowest proportion in the world. The treatment of women has been referred to as “gender apartheid.”[7][8][dead link][9] Implementation of a government resolution supporting expanded employment opportunities for women met resistance from within the labor ministry,[10] from the religious police,[11] and from the male citizenry.[12] These institutions and individuals generally claim that according to Sharia a woman’s place is in the home caring for her husband and family. It is a country where culture and religion make women live mostly restricted segregated lives. There is also segregation inside their own homes as some rooms have separate entrances for men and women. [13]

It’s the song about love between the brothers and the sisters, all over this land:

Participants said they hoped the gathering would culminate in an agreement on a global Islamic charter on dialogue with Christians and Jews. They expect Saudi Arabia will launch its formal call for an interfaith dialogue at the conference’s close or soon after.

Abdullah’s message, which has been welcomed by Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders, is significant, though it remains unclear who will participate in the second phase of the initiative; in particular whether Israeli religious leaders would be invited.

Color me skeptical.

Hamas’ lies about respecting Gaza’s Christians continue to be exposed, and ignored by the world.

A Palestinian human rights group says assailants have beaten up guards and stolen a bus from a Christian school in Gaza.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights says the incident took place early Saturday morning at a school run by the Baptist Church.

A Palestinian Christian who worked at the school was killed in October, and a nearby Christian bookshop was firebombed months earlier. Last month assailants detonated a bomb outside another Christian school. No arrests were made in any of the incidents.

Since Hamas came to power a year ago, attacks on Gaza’s 3,000 Christians have increased. The Muslim group denies involvement and says it’s trying to protect the dwindling community.

Remember, first they came for the Jews. But if there are no Jews around, apparently, Christians will do just fine.

Countdown to the “It’s all Israel’s fault” chorus in 3, 2, 1….

I get a lot of comments that never get approved because, well, I don’t believe in publishing hate on my blog.

But then sometimes, I get an email that makes me smile for the rest of the day.

I know the article of Black and Jewish relations is two years old, but I just came across it today. I just wanted to say thank you for telling the truth. I believe Jews and Blacks have a lot in common and I am fascinated and inspired by the diversity of the Jewish culture(s) in and outside of America.

Again, thank you for your insightful article.

Happy Passover
Steffannie

Steffannie, thank you.

My Christian readers will really appreciate that MySpace link. Steffannie writes and sings Christian music, and she has a wonderful voice. Check her out.

The AP has an expose of the side of Islam that CAIR never tells you about: Servitude to greedy imams who send children out to beg so the imams can live in luxury.

For some reason, the International Herald Tribune—owned by the New York Times—thinks they need to preface the article with a caveat that children are treated like property all over Africa.

There are 1.2 million Colis in the world today, children trafficked to work for the benefit of others. Those who lure them into servitude make US$15 billion (€9.5 billion) annually, according to the International Labor Organization.

It’s big business in Senegal. In the capital of Dakar alone, at least 7,600 child beggars work the streets, according to a study released in February by the ILO, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Bank. The children collect an average of 300 African francs a day, just 72 US cents (45 euro cents), reaping their keepers US$2 million (€1.3 million) a year.

Most of the boys — 90 percent, the study found — are sent out to beg under the cover of Islam, placing the problem at the complicated intersection of greed and tradition. For among the cruelest facts of Coli’s life is that he was not stolen from his family. He was brought to Dakar with their blessing to learn Islam’s holy book.

In the name of religion, Coli spent two hours a day memorizing verses from the Quran and over nine hours begging to pad the pockets of the man he called his teacher.

It was getting dark. Coli had less than half the 72 cents he was told to bring back. He was afraid. He knew what happened to children who failed to meet their daily quotas.

They were stripped and doused in cold water. The older boys picked them up like hammocks by their ankles and wrists. Then the teacher whipped them with an electrical cord until the cord ate their skin.

Apparently, you’re not allowed to charge for an Islamic education. So things like this are the norm in the Muslim world.

Not all Quranic boarding schools force their students to beg. But for the most part, what was once an esteemed form of education has degenerated into child trafficking. Nowadays, Quranic instructors net as many children as they can to increase their daily take.

“If you do the math, you’ll find that these people are earning more than a government functionary,” said Souleymane Bachir Diagne, an Islamic scholar at Columbia University. “It’s why the phenomenon is so hard to eradicate.”

Middle men trawl for children as far afield as the dunes of Mauritania and the grass-covered huts of Mali. It’s become a booming, regional trade that ensnares children as young as 2, who don’t know the name of their village or how to return home.

Watch this story get buried quickly. Imagine the outcry if Christian or Jewish schools were doing the same thing. Double standards abound.

Buwaro is a thin man in his 30s who wears a pressed olive robe and digital watch. The children wear T-shirts black with filth. He expects them to beg to pay the rent, because there are no fields here to till.

But their earnings far exceed his rent of $50. If the boys meet their quotas, they bring in around $650 a month in a nation where the average person earns $150.

Buwaro expects the children to suffer to learn the Quran, just as he did at the hands of his teacher.

I won’t hold my breath waiting for CAIR to condemn these practices. Just as I won’t hold my breath waiting for the media to pick up this story the way they would pick up a negative story about Israel. It simply doesn’t fit the narrative.

A happy and kosher Passover to all of my Jewish readers.

“In every generation, they rise up against us, but the Holy One, blessed be He, rescues us from their hands.”

We will recite those words tonight. They have never lost their meaning. I’m afraid they never will.

But we’re still here. And we’ll still be here, when Hamas is as obscure—and dead—as the Hittites.

One of the famous prophetic events discussed is when God shows the prophet Yechezkel (Ezekiel) a valley of dry bones and asks the prophet if those bones could yet live. In the end God re-forms the bones into living men. There is some debate in the Talmud whether this incident happened or whether it was just a prophetic vision. Still it serves as a powerful metaphor that years of exile would not destroy the Jewish people.To some, the rebirth of the Jewish nation in 1948 was an example of dry bones being given new life. And according to an article, On Eve of Passover, Bread Stirs Deep Thoughts in Israel, by Ethan Bronner in the New York Times, more Israelis are taking the Jewish part of their identity more seriously.

Hametz is bread and other leavened products that many Jews do not eat for the eight days of Passover, which starts Saturday night. The Bible says that when God freed the Jews from enslavement in Egypt, they left in such a hurry that there was no time for their bread to rise, and to mark that circumstance, consuming leavened bread during the holiday is forbidden.The focus of the debate here is a ruling by a Jerusalem municipal judge overturning the convictions of four shops and restaurants for having sold pizzas and rolls during the holiday last year despite a law that many thought prohibited businesses from doing so. The judge said the law barred only the public display of hametz, not its sale inside shops.

While most debates about the painstakingly negotiated public role of religion in Israel line up along predictable lines of observant versus secular, this discussion has been different. And it speaks to a palpable anxiety over the need to define and defend the Jewish nature of the state, even as Israel’s 60th anniversary approaches next month.

In opinion articles and informal conversations, some nonreligious Israelis said that they liked the eight-day absence of hametz, and that it was a small but potent symbol of a unique collective identity.

I don’t agree with everything in the article, but Bronner gives a look at the non-religious religion that exists in Israel. This is decidedly different from the Jew-less Israeli who is the hero of Ha’aretz. Or of Shimon Peres. And it’s a (phony) formulation much beloved by Thomas Friedman. As he wrote ten years ago in “The Morning After”

On the morning after being defeated by Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s 1996 elections, the Labor Party leader, Shimon Peres, was asked what he thought happened. ”The Israelis lost,” said Mr. Peres. ”The Jews won.”What Mr. Peres was referring to was his notion that Israel had become divided between ”Israelis” and ”Jews.” The ”Israelis” tend to be secular, with their primary loyalty to Israel as a state and their own individual and material advancement. They see Israel’s future as being in the peace process and in greater and greater integration with the region and the world at large. The Israelis, though, come in two varieties: the dovish, liberal Israelis (49 percent) and the conservative, security-hawk Israelis (25.5 percent). The dovish Israelis pretty much liked Oslo as it was, and voted for Peres; the security-hawk Israelis wanted a better Oslo, and voted for Bibi to make it happen.

The ”Jews”(25.5 percent), by contrast, come from the traditional and Orthodox communities, the West Bank settlements and the religious-Zionist movements. They are devoted to a traditional conception of Judaism and see the Israeli state as a means to fulfill Judaism’s commandments, not as an end itself. The Jews are skeptical of integration, which they equate with assimilation, and they see Israel as fated to perpetually struggle with its non-Jewish neighbors. They were threatened by Oslo and voted for Bibi in hopes that he would kill it.

In some precincts to be Israeli without the baggage of being Jewish is celebrated. But I think that it’s relegated to a certain strata of the “enlightened.” I also think it’s damaging as Jonathan Rosenblum writes:

Nothing better captures the Palestinian game plan than a story that I have told before, related by Palestinian legislator Selah Temari. While imprisoned in an Israeli jail for security offenses, Temari came to the conclusion that Israel was far too powerful to ever destroy. He decided that when he got out of jail he would devote himself to tending his own olive tree and abandon the struggle against Israel. He even began to study Jewish history to gain insight into the perseverance of the Jewish people in the face of so much adversity.Then one night he was looking through the bars of his cell, and he saw his Jewish jailer eating a pita. “How could you be eating bread?” he asked. “Don’t you know it is Pesach?” The jailer answered him: “Do you really expect me not to eat bread, because of something that happened 3,300 years ago?”

That night, records Temari, he twisted and turned all night. By the morning, he reached the conclusion that the Palestinians could expel the Jews. A people that had lost its sense of connection to its past and to the Land could be defeated.

Fortunately, those who deny their Jewishness are a relatively small minority of Israelis. Who better to illustrate this than Dry Bones cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen. In two sharp recent cartoons, Kirschen mocked the Jerusalem court ruling. As he writes.

I am a secular Jew and I live in a non-religious suburb of Tel Aviv and I am outraged at this attempt to assault our culture and to wreck the Jewishness of the Jewish State. It is precisely the “public display” of leavened bread which I find most offensive.

It is heartening to read that it isn’t just religious Israelis who wish to live in a Jewish state. As Bronner reports and Kirschen protests, the Jewishness of Israel is important to quite a large proportion of the Israeli public, no matter what the out of touch elites wish to believe.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

If this poll is accurate, the hand-wringing among the anti-Israel set is going to increase exponentially.

A new survey conducted by a Washington DC-based evangelical organization among American Christians has found that 82% of them believe they have a moral obligation to support the Jews and Israel. The poll, conducted among Catholics and Protestants alike, tested their stance on Jerusalem’s future and ways to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat.

See, it’s not just Evangelicals. And gee, the U.S. majority religion, let me think, what is it, hm…. oh, that’s right! Christianity!

CAIR is going to blow a gasket over this one.

The subjects were asked whether they thought a country created in the West bank and Gaza would be democratic and peaceful, or a terrorist state. Thirty-two percent thought it would become a terrorist state, 24% thought it would be democratic and peaceful, and 44% said they didn’t know. Fifty percent said they believed Jerusalem should remain unified, 17% supported dividing it between two states, and 33% remained undecided.

And the Iranian mullahs are going to have a fit, too.

According to the poll, 65% of American Christians are convinced that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, which its leaders will attempt to use in order to destroy Israel. A similar percentage said that the US presidential candidates’ Middle East stance would constitute a major factor in their vote for president in August, in contrast to 13%, who said that the issue would not affect their vote.

Obama will be worrying too, but hey, he’s already discounted those hicks that “cling to religion” out of bitterness and frustration.

And how refreshing it is to have Jews and Christians on the same side of an issue for a change. Here. Have a virtual handshake, folks.

Well, not really. There was a bar mitzvah (one of my third-year students; only one more left from that class, and he did a wonderful job), and I’m working to make up the hours from Monday and Tuesday, and, well, there’s little desire left to write.

I got to carry the Torah today. I’ve only done it about twice before. It’s a wonderful feeling.

Today was also a unique experience: A thunderstorm struck during the Torah reading. I thought it added to the event. And the rain mostly stopped before the service ended, so no drenchings for the crowd. There was a point where we wondered if the power would stay on, however. It did.

Get out the hankies for this one.

Gift from America: Eight-year-old Osher Twito, who sustained serious wounds and lost his leg two months ago after being hit by a Qassam rocket, will be able to move around more easily now that he received a surprise gift from an evangelical group.

The Christian group, Hugs for Israel, provided Twito with an electric all-terrain vehicle. Group members wanted Osher to feel that he is one of the strongest kids in his neighborhood andshow others that he is moving on with his life, the group’s founder and president, Brenda Giles, told Ynet Thursday.

Giles, who lives both in Israel and in the United States, said that she turned to various Israel supporters after hearing about the injuries sustained by Osher and his older brother Rami. One of the people approached provided a donation that allowed the group to purchase the gift for Osher, she said.

You can wonder (and to be honest, I do) whether some Evangelicals support Israel only in the hopes of the end times. But you can’t deny that this was a wonderful gift to a boy in need, brought by a woman with a loving heart. I’m thinking the only thing on her mind was the needs of a boy who lost his leg.

There’s a picture at the link.

Last night, I joined Sarah and her children at their synagogue for Friday night services. It was a big occasion—their synagogue is celebrating its hundredth anniversary. I had been with them before on a couple other occasions, like the second day of Rosh Hashanah and the second night’s Passover Seder. They have a choir for special holidays, and the choir is behind wooden screens, and I didn’t know they had one. (Totally freaked me out when I heard them start singing on Rosh Hashanah, and I muttered anxiously, “Where are they?” to one of Sarah’s kids, who helpfully pointed out the screens to me.) There was a choir last night, as well as a soloist who was phenomenal.

The place was packed, of course. And the service was wonderful. I have not enjoyed a service at my synagogue almost since our former rabbi left. No, wait, I really liked the service that my students led. Oh, wait. The rabbi was off job-hunting at his new position that weekend. Daled class, the principal, and I led the service.

I stopped listening to our interim’s sermons at all after a while. I don’t think a series of anecdotes is a subsitute for a sermon about the week’s Torah portion. I don’t care for superficial touchy-feely “YOU have the power” crap thrown into what is supposed to be teaching us about the Torah. And I especially don’t like the way the center of attention has been shifted from the service—and I am including bar mitzvahs—to the interim rabbi. Narcissim is not, in my opinion, a good quality for a religious leader.

That’s why it was an absolute pleasure to see a rabbi who both knows how to write a great sermon, and who relates it to the event of the moment. The rabbi on Friday night went so far as to research—and quote from—the man who was rabbi during the last anniversary celebration. Now that is a man who knows what it is to lead a congregation, and to find out what the membership wants, and give it to them accordingly.

That’s what we used to have. I miss it.

This post is written exclusively from my point of view as a member of my congregation, not as a teacher.

Funny, but there’s a really huge part of a story that broke yesterday that the AP didn’t feel worth covering. Reuters did. Oh, they buried the quote halfway down the story, and they titled it “Zawahri says bin Laden in good health,” but at least Reuters—and the European and other outlets that use Reuters—printed it.

AP editors must have decided that this just isn’t very newsworthy:

Zawahri also called for attacks on Jews. “We promise our Muslim brothers that we will do our utmost to strike Jews in Israel and abroad with help and guidance from God.”

Nope. Another call for the annihilation of Jews from a Muslim terrorist is not newsworthy. But remember, the root cause is Israel. Or poverty. Or Western “imperialism.” The cause is not Jew-hatred. The cause is not a religion that brainwashes people into believing that they are absolutely not responsible for the murder of thousands of innocents.

But even Reuters whitewashes Zawahiri’s Jew-hatred:

The Egyptian militant also reiterated al Qaeda calls to Muslims to topple Western-allied governments and to attack Western and Israeli interests in Muslim countries.

“We call the nation in Egypt and other parts to hit crusader and Jewish interests wherever they are to force the invaders to leave Muslim land, and to stop supporting corrupt regimes.”

“Jewish” is not interchangeable with “Israeli,” and here is the exact quote:

In regard to Egypt, our independent judgement to which we invite the Ummah in Egypt and elsewhere is: the striking of the Jewish Crusader interests wherever they are found to force the invaders to depart the lands of the Muslims…

That’s not “Western and Israeli interests.” I do believe “crusader” is defined as “Christian” by al Qaeda and, well, he pretty clearly called for the deaths of Jews. Including, I would presume, me.

Once more, with feeling: If you want to find the news, you’d best not rely on the wire services or the mainstream media. Dig for yourself and read the source material. There’s much, much more at that link. (And at Hot Air, where I found it.)

In the weeks since revelations about Sen. Obama’s relationship with Rev. Wright became known, I was wondering when we’d hear from the National Jewish Democratic Council. Well we’ve finally heard from them on the controversy.

That’s right.
Silence.

(Note: I’m referring to the NJDC’s blog. Maybe individual members have commented on the controversy or issued public statements. Usually those would be linked to on the blog. Certainly if a Republican candidate had a similar relationship with a racist we’d have seen something on the blog.)

No condemnation of Sen. Obama’s ties to a racist and antisemite. No expression of regret that the junior senator from Illinois didn’t condemn Rev. Wright until the issue became an embarrassment.

The NJDC, though, is quite happy about the prospect of having so many Jewish super-delegates to the Democratic convention.

According to a Gallup Poll published yesterday, Jewish voters are split roughly down the middle. 48% prefer Senator Clinton, and 43% prefer Senator Obama; this 5-point lead for Senator Clinton is within the margin of error. With the race as close as it is, these Jewish superdelegates could play a pivotal role in determining the Democratic presidential nominee.

So Jews could play a role in handing the Democratic nomination to a white woman instead of a fellow who attends a church whose former pastor considers “Israel” a dirty word. That isn’t exactly something I’d be excited about.

Perhaps a group of Jewish Pennsylvania politicians understand that too. The Caucus reports: Pa. Jewish Leaders Praise Obama in Letter

The letter, which can be found online here at the Jewish news service JTA, praises Senator Obama at length for his recent speech on race and argues that he shouldn’t be held accountable for incendiary remarks made by his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. While we are profoundly disturbed by the unpatriotic, bigoted and anti-Semitic comments of the retired pastor of Senator Obama’s church, we are moved that Barack stood up at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia earlier this month, and “condemned in unequivocal terms the statements of Reverend Wright” and expressed his own views on issues near and dear to the heart and soul of the Jewish community.

Specifically, in repudiating the remarks of his former pastor, Senator Obama said Reverend Wright “expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country…a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.”

“We respectfully ask that you stand with Senator Barack Obama and vote for him on April 22,” the letter ends.

Sen. Obama’s speech, to my mind, contained too much equivocation to be viewed in such a positive light. It was less a “repudiation” than asking others to understand where Rev. Wright was coming from.

The Caucus item concludes:

Henri Barkey, chairman of the international relations program at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., is an unpaid foreign policy adviser to the Obama campaign who affixed his signature to the letter. Senator Obama has been “misrepresented” by his association with Reverend Wright, Mr. Barkey said, and Jewish people should hear the truth about Mr. Obama’s pro-Israel policies from fellow Jewish people.“This is how American politics can get — very dirty and personal,” Mr. Barkey said. “My sense in this day and age is you don’t let anything fester. You set the record straight, and perhaps that should have been done earlier. When you don’t respond quicker, people assume it’s true.”

Dirty? Personal? Sen. Obama’s ties with Rev. Wright really go to the heart of his character. The most charitable explanation is that Sen. Obama didn’t accept what he was hearing or was even appalled by it, but he attended the church because it was politically expedient for him to do so. Of course that makes him as cynical as we’ve come to expect politicians to be. Nothing messianic about that. It’s politics as usual, with an unusually articulate salesman making the deal.

Israel Matzav critiques the Jewish Pennsylvania politicians:

Not every ‘liberal cause’ is reconcilable with Judaism. But it’s clear that these ‘leaders’ have decided to replace the Jewish version of social justice with their own.

Still other aspects of Sen. Obama’s ties to the church are hard to explain away. How does Sen. Obama pose as a supporter of Israel when his church’s newsletter published the manifesto of Hamas without, apparently, eliciting any sort of objection from the senator? (h/t Colossus of Rhodey.Hube) And how does he stand by his church’s support for Minister Farrakhan? He may have denounced Farrakhan, but he did march in the million man march. What’s expedient? Sen. Obama’s flirtation with Farrakhan or his disavowal of said relationship? The same can be asked of his ties to Rev. Wright.

The NJDC considers talks of Sen. Obama’s ties with Farrakhan to be smears. As mentioned above, Sen. Obama’s ties to Farrakhan aren’t unfair game. They speak against his “post-racial” appeal. They also suggest that Sen. Obama’s is good deal more cynical than his supporters would acknowledge. This isn’t American idol we’re talking about. We’re talking about a campaign to see who will lead the free world.

Someone who has built his career by tolerating the intolerant needs to explain that tolerance. Sen. Obama’s reassessment ought to have come before Rev. Wright or Minister Farrakhan became liabilities. That it didn’t raises questions about Sen. Obama’s sincerity in repudiating them.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

CNET discusses German Jews’ attempt to get YouTube to remove Nazi propaganda from its ranks. The commenters take this opportunity—of course—to bash the Jews. But not in the way you think. No, on the eve of Good Friday, one of our tolerant Christian friends chooses to point out that, gee, it’s always a good time to blame the Jews.

Let the Central Council of Jews in Germany view / not view, and / or post, what they want; and let all others view / not view, and / or post, what they want. With regards to … ‘Honestly, killing people because of their religion is pretty lame.’ - I agree; especially with tomorrow being ‘Good Friday’ - the day that Jesus died at the hands of the Jews.

Yeah, you gotta love the attitude that blames the Jews for killing Jesus, even though they’re taught that Jesus had to die to save their sins.

Once again, however, The Exception Clause corollary is proven: In any internet discussion involving religion, politics, or Jews, the probability of it devolving into anti-Semitism is 100%.

There’s a famous story about the great sage Hillel the Elder.

Hillel used to earn a trepik a day, half of which he gave to the guard at the house of study and half he used to support himself and his family. One day he earned nothing and the guard would not let him in. He climbed up and sat on the skylight so that he could hear the words of the living God from Shemayah and Avtalyon. It happened that it was a Friday in the winter and the snow from the sky fell upon him. At the break of dawn, Shemaya said to Avtalyon: “My brother. Usually it is light but today it is dark. Perhaps the day is cloudy.” They looked up and saw the shape of a man against the window, and they found three cubits of snow upon him. They took off the snow, washed him, anointed him and put him by the fire. They said: “He is worthy for shabbat to be profaned for his sake.” (Yoma 35b)

When I heard this story about Doron Mahareta (the oldest student killed at Merkaz Harav last week) from Rabbi Hauer, I couldn’t help thinking about Hillel’s dedication to Torah study. When Doron originally went to Merkaz Harav he couldn’t pass the entrance exam. Instead of despairing, he asked if he could work at the Yeshiva and was given a job as a dishwasher. Doron, wasn’t just a dishwasher. With his foot in the door, he took advantage of his opportunity to ask the students about what they were learning. When he had spare time, he’d go to the Bais Medrash (study hall) and study. A year and a half later he approached the Rosh Yeshiva (the head of the Yeshiva) and asked if he could now enter the Yeshiva. After being rebuffed, he proceeded to show the Rosh Yeshiva how much he learned in his year and a half as a “dishwasher.”

The story would be incredible enough on its own if it ended there. But it didn’t.

He forced the Rosh Yeshiva into a Torah discussion; the next day, he was no longer a dish washer but a full-fledged “yeshiva bachur”.On weekends, when Doron would come home to visit his family in Ashdod, he’d spend the entire Shabbat either in the Melitzer Shul or the neighboring Gerrer shtiebel learning Shulchan Aruch and its commentaries. Three weeks ago, he finished the entire Shulchan Aruch and principle commentaries. Doron achieved in his tender 26 years what others don’t attain in 88 years.

For some perspective, the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) is a massive work. The average Orthodox rabbi doesn’t have to know the complete Shulchan Aruch to earn ordination.

It’s like a student who hadn’t taken pre-calculus in high school went to MIT, worked as a dishwasher and then 7 years later emerged with a Phd in Math. It takes a tremendous amount of dedication and perseverance to accomplish what Doron did. He stands as one more example of the tremendous loss suffered ten days ago when a murderer started shooting innocent young men studying.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The New York Times reports, U.S. Universities Join Saudis in Partnerships:

Three prominent American universities — the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University — are starting five-year partnerships, worth $25 million or more, with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, a graduate-level research university being built in Saudi Arabia.Under the agreements, the mechanical engineering department at Berkeley, the computer-science department and Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford, and the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas will help pick the faculty and develop the curriculum for the new university, known by the acronym Kaust, which is scheduled to open next year with a $10 billion endowment.

Over the five years, each university will receive a $10 million gift, $10 million for research on their home campus and $5 million for research at Kaust, as well as administrative costs.

Unsurprisingly, there are some possible pitfalls.

Although men and women will be able to mingle freely at the new university, faculty members at the American institutions said they were concerned about the possible pitfalls of working in a society where women cannot drive, gay rights do not exist and Israelis are not welcome.The agreements do contain an exit clause. “We have a 30-day cancellation provision, allowing us to leave the agreement with no penalty if at any time we are dissatisfied,” Dr. Pisano said.

University officials said they had addressed the issues of academic and personal freedom head-on.

“We are working with a university that has guaranteed nondiscrimination on the basis of race, religion or gender,” said Peter Glynn, director of the Stanford institute. “We recognize that this university operates in Saudi Arabia. Having said that, this university recognizes that if it wants to be world-class, it has to be able to freely attract the best students and faculty from around the world.”

Around the world? Do you really expect Jews to be accepted there unconditionally? Just because someone may be free in certain ways on campus, there’s still the surrounding country. The Saudis can make things uncomfortable outside the campus in ways that could affect the situation on campus.

And do these institutions expect that the Saudi influence will be limited to this joint venture? Or will they be expected to provide added value to the investment in other disciplines?

He acknowledged that the issue could be sticky. “We have several Israeli faculty involved with this, but to be honest, there’s very little of what Stanford will be doing that will involve travel to Saudi Arabia,” he said. He added that Stanford’s main role would be devising the curriculum and recruiting initial faculty members, from around the world. “We believe this university can have a major impact in Saudi Arabia and in the region, and that’s why we’re doing this.”

In other words, even now, they’re keeping the participation of Israeli (though I suspect the proper word should be “Jewish”) faculty members quiet. If they don’t want to upset the Saudis now, will they stand up to them later?

Frankly, I think that the “major impact” the universities seek is the cash.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Harvard University is coming under fire for creating women-only hours at one of its gyms, at the request of Muslim students.

Since Jan. 28, the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center has been open only to women from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays.

The change was prompted by a request from the Harvard College Women’s Center, which was approached by six female Muslim students, said Robert Mitchell, communications director of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

“It was done for religious purposes, but it’s not closed to other women who may want to participate,” he said.

Ola Aljawhary, a student and a member of the Harvard Islamic Society, said the women-only gym is needed.

“These hours are necessary because there is a segment of the Harvard female population that is not found in gyms, not because they don’t want to work out, but because for them working out in a co-ed gym is uncomfortable, awkward or problematic in some way,” she told Boston University’s Daily Free Press.

Now, you can probably make a case that I’m comparing apples and oranges here, but I find it interesting that the Jewish community has similar problems, and yet seems to manage to find ways to handle them in the private community.

Skin-tight tank tops and spandex bike shorts have never been standard workout attire at the heavily Orthodox Bernard Horwich Jewish Community Center in West Rogers Park.

[...] Nonetheless, for religious reasons some people felt uncomfortable exercising at the center — until it became one of the few Jewish community centers in the country to open separate workout facilities for men and women.

The new workout areas were designed to address many members’ desire for modesty, a trait the Orthodox have traditionally valued highly.

Some particularly observant Orthodox do not so much as shake hands with someone of the opposite sex. And married women typically cover their hair and wear skirts with hems that fall below the knee.

The apparel issue is one reason that fewer women than men exercised at the center when its workout facility was co-ed. Even though certain hours were set aside for women or men only, there was always the possibility that someone of the opposite gender would walk past the workout room and glance in.

“So many wouldn’t come,” said fitness director Myra Orlinsky. “There wasn’t the comfort level. We had stopped reaching the community.”

Now, she said, “we are seeing a spike in membership,” with about 75 new people signing up for trial memberships during the facilities’ grand opening on Sunday.

I got the biggest kick out of this graf:

Said Minkow: “All of a sudden we’ve got rabbis here, studying on the treadmills.”

Now that would be fun to see. Oh. Wait. I wouldn’t be able to see it. Bummer.

Michelle Malkin has an item today about demands from the Gulf to pass laws forbidding the insulting of Islam.

Combined with the recent re-publication of the Danish Mo cartoons, these unacceptable acts of free speech have Muslim “scholars” demanding that heads roll.

About two years ago I saw a similar idea proposed by: A Jewish professor at an American university (under Jewish auspices)! Robert O. Freedman of the Baltimore Hebrew University recommended an International Religious Court of enforce civility among religions. LGF quoted from the article and wrote

It takes a lot to make my jaw drop these days, but here’s an op-ed in Baltimore’s Jewish Times that achieved this near-impossible feat.

The Volokh Conspiracy also quoted from the article, but was more clinical.

As you might gather, my reaction to this is much the same as my reaction to the “Defamation of Religions” argument I criticized below. Interestingly, unlike Prof. Ali Khan’s work, Dr. Friedman’s argument doesn’t even mention the possibility that the nation in which he lives might be constitutionally barred from going along with the orders of any such court.

My own problem with Dr. Freedman’s suggestion was whether this court could be a forum to take action against Muslims who destroyed shrines of other religions or if it was only meant to address Muslim sensitivities. And if it was the latter, would Muslims be able to take action against a country that allowed an apostate to live in its borders?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Say, you know that enlightened, “moderate” state next to Israel? The one that everyone says is so cool with the West? The one that keeps refusing to change the laws about honor killings and declares Islam to be its state religion? Yeah, that one. Well, they just arrested a group of Christians, for the awful crime of—wait for it—evangelizing.

Eight people have been arrested in Jordan for propagating the Christian faith, according to a Saudi newspaper.

Jordanian security forces arrested eight people, mostly foreigners, after they were caught distributing missionary material to Bedouin families north and east of the Jordanian capital, Amman, the Saudi daily Al-Watan reported.

The authorities received information about the missionaries from local residents who said these foreigners were offering humanitarian assistance to poor Muslim families and distributing fliers promoting Christianity.

Sources said they were “enticing” impoverished youngsters by paying them money and calling on them to marry foreign girls.

Mind you, I can’t stand evangelists coming to my door and trying to convert me, either. But then, I just tell them to get lost and close the door. (Unless I’m in a really pissy mood, in which case I am less kind.) But it’s good to know that such a “moderate” state is so tolerant. This is the state that constantly lectures Israel on her treatment of Muslims, in particular, when discussing the Temple Mount in re: Al-Aqsa Mosque. Funny how they’re not so tolerant about their own property.

The Jordanian government prohibits conversion from Islam and the proselytizing of Muslims. The Shari’a courts have the authority to prosecute people trying to convert Muslims, according to the United States State Department’s annual report on religious freedom.

Muslims in Jordan who convert to another religion face social and governmental discrimination, the report said.

Yes, it’s another example of the famed Muslim tolerance of other religions. Tolerance. That’s why eight Christians were arrested for proselytizing.

Last Friday night, for the sixth time in my teaching career, my fourth graders led services. Every year, they get better and better at singing the prayers and psalms in front of their parents and the congregation. I’d love to take all the credit for it, but it’s not just me. I’m only a small part of their improvement. It’s the program that was set into place by our former rabbi and education director, who were also responsible for the presence of over twenty-five children and young people at my adult bat mitzvah in November. And by “responsible for the presence,” I mean that the children came up eagerly when called on to assist me during services on Friday and Saturday. The older ones helped out with things like the Ashrey (which I still need to learn fully), and the younger ones came up for Mizmor l’David, fully prepared and able to lead the congregation along with me.

This year, I decided to teach my students the Hatzi Kaddish, which I used to think was too difficult for fourth graders. We also worked on Mizmor l’David, Mi Chamocha, and the Bar’chu. Believe it or not, that last gave them and me a world of trouble. They kept mixing up the melody of the lead and the response. But we finally got it right by the Tuesday before we were due to lead, and I went to services on Friday night feeling confident. The rabbi was out of town for the weekend, so the principal of the religious school and I ran the show. I had my students up for everything but the Amidah. The principal and I sang along sotto voce, but not to help the kids—they didn’t need our help at all. They were letter-perfect on just about everything, and when they sang the Hatzi Kaddish, I was prouder of my students than if they’d been my own kids. They were great.

Instead of a sermon, we played, “Are you smarter than a fourth grader?” and asked their parents and congregants questions about Judaism. If they didn’t know the answer, they picked one of the students, who did. Of course I skewed the questions to ones I knew the children could answer. But it was fun. When one of the congregants got a typical Ms. Yourish holiday question (”Tell me three things about Purim”), he answered, “Haman, Esther, Mordecai.” I had my students follow up after we all stopped laughing. Every year, they learn whether or not a holiday is a three-line holiday (”They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat!”). Then they go on to tell me who tried to kill us, and what special foods we eat.

Now here’s the really special thing about learning the Hatzi Kaddish this year. We have only one page in the Siddur with the transliteration, and it’s for the Saturday morning prayer service. My fourth graders are not fluent in Hebrew, and I believe in letting them use transliteration until they learn the words, then move onto the Hebrew. Not only does it help them learn their prayers, but I think it improves their Hebrew skills as well. So I brought in Post-It flags for them to put on the page with the transliteration, because it takes a nine-year-old child a lot longer than it takes you or me to turn to page 324 (and even with the flag, one of the students took a while getting to the page). They read from the transliteration, they did well, and that, I thought was that.

The next day in Sunday school, the third grade teacher asked me to help her students prepare for their turn to lead services at the end of the month. (We have our classes together the last 45 minutes of Sunday for another project, and we’re playing to each other’s strengths during that time.) So I asked them if they’d like to learn the Hatzi Kaddish.

“No! It’s too hard!” was the response.

“Tellya what,” I said. “Let’s just all do it—Daled class will show you how, and you can just listen if you like, you don’t have to sing along—and at the end of the prayer, you decide if you want to try it for your service.” We turned to page 324. My students led, third graders sang along, and by the end of the prayer, they decided yes, they would like to make the Hatzi Kaddish their special prayer for their service (they’ll be with the kindergarten, first and second graders due to a scheduling change).

But we’re still not at the punchline to this story. Third and fourth grade practiced the Hatzi Kaddish on Sunday and again on Tuesday afternoon early. Tuesday near the end of class, we met with the rest of the school (grades five through seven) for T’filah. The principal called for the Hatzi Kaddish. It was on a page without transliteration. I walked around the children, listening intently to the third and fourth graders. They were singing along. With all of it. They were looking at the book, at the Hebrew. All of them.

These are the moments a teacher lives for. The third and fourth grade can chant the Hatzi Kaddish in Hebrew, and they didn’t even know they could do it.

I am so moving on to Mizmor L’David for third grade on Tuesday.

Muslims in Gaza blew up the YMCA library. Why? To protest the Danish publication of the Mohammed cartoons. Because it follows, logically, that when Danes “insult” Mohammed, Gazan Christians must be punished.

Unidentified gunmen blew up the YMCA library in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning. No one was hurt, but the library was completely destroyed.

Sources in Gaza told The Jerusalem Post the attack was in response to the re-publication of cartoons “ridiculing” the Prophet Muhammad in a number of Danish newspapers last week.

The sources said at least 12 gunmen participated in the assault, the latest in a series of attacks on Christian figures and institutions.

“The attackers kidnapped the two guards before they stormed the building in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City,” the sources said. “Then they entered the library, where they detonated a number of explosive charges, causing heavy damage.”

One of the guards, Abdel Mu’ti Abu Khoussa, 52, said the attackers also stole computers and other equipment from the offices of the YMCA. Only some of them had masks on their faces, he said.

Issa Saba, secretary-general of the YMCA in the Gaza Strip, said all 8,000 books were destroyed. He said the gunmen also stole a vehicle belonging to the organization.

And of course, Hamas and Fatah are pointing the fingers at each other. Oh, come off it. It was probably a partnership deal. There are only a few thousand Christians left in Gaza. Who cares, right?

The Palestinian Christian population has dipped to 1.5% of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, down from at least 15% a half century ago, according to some estimates. No city in the Holy Land is more indicative of the Christian exodus than Bethlehem, which fell under full Palestinian control last decade as part of the Oslo Accords. The town of 30,000 is now less than 20% Christian, after decades during which Christians were the majority. Elsewhere in the PA territories, only about 3,000 Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox, live in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, among a strongly conservative Muslim population of 1.4 million.

But every year, Reuters, the AP, the BBC, the New York Times, and the rest of the news media blame Israel for the lack of Christians in the town where Christianity was born. Why not? The world learned a long time ago that you can never go wrong blaming the Jews.

Now there’s a modern state for you. The Saudis are going to kill an illiterate woman for, among other things, causing a man’s impotence.

A leading human rights group appealed to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Thursday to stop the execution of a woman accused of witchcraft and performing supernatural acts.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the kingdom’s religious police who arrested and interrogated Fawza Falih, and the judges who tried her in the northern town of Quraiyat never gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence in the face of “absurd charges that have no basis in law.”

[...] Falih later retracted her confession in court, claiming it was extracted under duress, and said that as an illiterate woman, she did not understand the document she was forced to fingerprint.

[...] The Saudi court cited an instance in which a man allegedly became impotent after being bewitched by Falih, the rights group said.

Yes, and she caused their pets to die, their hair to fall out, and their crops to fail. We have witnesses.

Did I say the Saudis were fast entering the eighteenth century? Sorry, but it’s still the seventeenth century in that kingdom of backwards, Jew-hating misogynists.

Wow.

I’ve been saying that you can’t count out the European self-preservation instinct. I don’t believe that the nations that have millennia-old history of war and bloodshed will just lie down and die when their way of life is threatened. And here’s proof I’m not wrong:

Denmark’s five major daily newspapers republished on Wednesday one of the 12 drawings of the Prophet Muhammad which angered Muslims around the world, as a protest against a plot to murder one of the cartoonists.

A Danish citizen of Moroccan descent and two Tunisians were arrested on Tuesday in western Denmark for planning to murder 73-year-old Kurt Westergaard, a cartoonist at Jyllands-Posten, the Danish paper that originally published the drawings in September 2005.

The five newspapers—Jyllands-Posten, Politiken, Berlingske Tidende, BT and Ekstra Bladet—on Wednesday republished Westergaard’s cartoon, which depicts the founder of Islam with a bomb in his turban.

Apparently, even the left recognizes existential threats. And their response has none of the xenophobia and bigotry of the far-right anti-Muslim parties like Vlaams Belang.

“Regardless of whether Jyllands-Posten at the time used freedom of speech unwisely and with damaging consequences, the paper deserves unconditional solidarity when it is threatened with terror,” It said.

This is exactly the reaction that Muslim organizations don’t want. The West, it seems, is not going to kowtow to the bullying and threats of the radical Islamists. Not counting, of course, morons like the Archibishop of Canterbury.

There is no inherent right not to be offended. Time to let the professional victimologists know that.

Lightness of Being

The bright sun dissects the airglow above Earth’s horizon in this view photographed with a digital still camera from the Space Shuttle Columbia during the STS-107 mission.Space Shuttle Columbia and the STS-107 crew perished during re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003.

Image Credit: NASA

Israeli forensic expert solves mystery of Ilan Ramon’s diary

“Once we started to examine the papers, we saw that they could split into three categories. On eight pages, you could see the writing clearly, it hadn’t been washed out. The pages were curled up and tattered, and it was like working on a jigsaw puzzle putting the fragments back into place. Just to know where to orient the fragments, I had to try every single permutation and combination. It took a few weeks to put the puzzle of those eight pages back together,” said Brown.Once completed, Brown photographed the pages and sent them to Rona Ramon who was back in Houston at the time.

One of the pages contained the handwritten Sabbath prayer of the wine - the kiddush - which Ramon had written out in order to be the first Jew to recite the blessing in space. Brown said that because of her religious background, she was able to piece together the scattered letters that remain on the page.

“When I speak about the diary to a non-religious audience and I say ‘I found this word, this word, and this word - what could this document be?’ They usually don’t know, but when I ask the question to a religious audience, they answer right away - ‘it’s the Kiddush.’

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Archeologists made another significant find in the City of David (literally and figuratively).

A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem’s City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name “Temech” engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.

According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts.

[...] The seal of one of the members of the Temech family was discovered just dozens of meters away from the Opel area, where the servants of the Temple, or “Nethinim,” lived in the time of Nehemiah, Mazar said.

“The seal of the Temech family gives us a direct connection between archeology and the biblical sources and serves as actual evidence of a family mentioned in the Bible,” she said. “One cannot help being astonished by the credibility of the bi